About the MDGs: Basics Print E-mail

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges. The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations-and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.

  • Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  • Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
  • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
  • Goal 5: Improve maternal health
  • Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  • Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
  • Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

The MDGs:

  • synthesise, in a single package, many of the most important commitments made separately at the international conferences and summits of the 1990s;
  • recognise explicitly the interdependence between growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development;
  • acknowledge that development rests on the foundations of democratic governance, the rule of law, respect for human rights and peace and security;
  • are based on time-bound and measurable targets accompanied by indicators for monitoring progress; and
  • bring together, in the eighth Goal, the responsibilities of developing countries with those of developed countries, founded on a global partnership endorsed at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002, and again at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002.

Implementation of the MDGs

In 2001, in response to the world leaders' request, UN Secretary General presented the Road Map Towards the Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, an integrated and comprehensive overview of the situation, outlining potential strategies for action designed to meet the goals and commitments of the Millennium Declaration.

The road map has been followed up since then with annual reports. In 2002, the annual report focused on progress made in the prevention of armed conflict and the treatment and prevention of diseases, including HIV/AIDS and Malaria. In 2003, emphasis was placed on strategies for development and strategies for sustainable development. In 2004, it was on bridging the digital divide and curbing transnational crime.

In 2005, the Secretary-General prepared the first comprehensive five-yearly report on progress toward achieving the MDGs The report reviews the implementation of decisions taken at the international conferences and special sessions on the least developed countries, progress on HIV/AIDS and financing for development and sustainable development.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Indicators

Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

  • 1.1 Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day
  • 1.2 Poverty gap ratio
  • 1.3 Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
  • Target 1b: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
  • 1.4 Growth rate of GDP per person employed
  • 1.5 Employment-to-population ratio
  • 1.6 Proportion of employed people living below $1 (PPP) per day
  • 1.7 Proportion of own-account and contributing family workers in total employment
  • Target 1c: Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
  • 1.8 Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
  • 1.9 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

 

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Indicators

Target 2a: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

  • 2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education
  • 2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary
  • 2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men

 

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

UNDP works on pro-women's policy advice, capacity development, and supports projects for gender equality in collaboration with UNIFEM.

Indicators

Target 3a: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

  • 3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
  • 3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
  • 3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Indicators

Target 4a: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

4.1 Under-five mortality rate

4.2 Infant mortality rate

4.3 Proportion of 1 year-old children immunised against measles

 

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Indicators

Target 5a: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

  • 5.1 Maternal mortality ratio
  • 5.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5b: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

  • 5.3 Contraceptive prevalence rate
  • 5.4 Adolescent birth rate
  • 5.5 Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
  • 5.6 Unmet need for family planning

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Indicators

Target 6a: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

  • 6.1 HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years
  • 6.2 Condom use at last high-risk sex
  • 6.3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
  • 6.4 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years

Target 6b: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

  • 6.5 Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs

Target 6c: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

  • 6.6 Incidence and death rates associated with malaria
  • 6.7 Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
  • 6.8 Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
  • 6.9 Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
  • 6.10 Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Indicators

Target 7a: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources

Target 7b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

  • 7.1 Proportion of land area covered by forest
  • 7.2 CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
  • 7.3 Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
  • 7.4 Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
  • 7.5 Proportion of total water resources used
  • 7.6 Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
  • 7.7 Proportion of species threatened with extinction

Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

  • 7.8 Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
  • 7.9 Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility


Target 7d: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

  • 7.10 Proportion of urban population living in slums

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Indicators

Target 8a: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally

Target 8b: Address the special needs of the least developed countries

Includes: tariff and quota free access for the least developed countries' exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction

Target 8c: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly)

Target 8d: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.

Official development assistance (ODA)

  • 8.1 Net ODA, total and to the least developed countries, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors’ gross national income
  • 8.2 Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
  • 8.3 Proportion of bilateral official development assistance of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
  • 8.4 ODA received in landlocked developing countries as a proportion of their gross national incomes
  • 8.5 ODA received in small island developing States as a proportion of their gross national incomes
  • Market access
  • 8.6 Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and least developed countries, admitted free of duty
  • 8.7 Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
  • 8.8 Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as a percentage of their gross domestic product
  • 8.9 Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Debt sustainability

  • 8.10 Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
  • 8.11 Debt relief committed under HIPC and MDRI Initiatives
  • 8.12 Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

Target 8e: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries

  • 8.13 Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis

Target 8f: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

  • 8.14 Telephone lines per 100 population
  • 8.15 Cellular subscribers per 100 population
  • 8.16 Internet users per 100 population

 

Strategies for the MDGs

UNDP supports MDG-based national development strategies

The UN System is helping countries improve their capacity to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To support this effort, UNDP and the Millennium Project have designed a comprehensive set of services to support MDG-based national development strategies. These services focus on three pillars:

  • MDG-based diagnostics and investment planning (technical and financial assistance needed to achieve the MDGs over the long term);
  • Widening policy options and choices (sectoral and cross-sectoral policy reforms and frameworks needed to accelerate growth with equity and promote long-term human development); and
  • Strengthening national capacity (enable effective service delivery at the national and local levels).

Millennium Project

The Millennium Project was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2002, aims at proposing the best strategies for meeting the MDGs and at developing a concrete action plan for the world to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people.

Headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the Millennium Project is an independent advisory body and presented its final recommendations, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals to the Secretary-General in January 2005.

The bulk of the Project’s work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising a total of more than 250 experts from around the world including: researchers and scientists; policymakers; representatives of NGOs, UN agencies, the World Bank, IMF and the private sector. Since their establishment, the Task Forces have conducted extensive research within their fields of expertise to produce recommendations for meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The ongoing work of the Project is led by a secretariat housed at UNDP headquarters in New York.

Partnerships

Partnerships are particularly important for UNDP's work and for achieving the MDGs. The eighth MDG, "To develop a global partnership for development," explicitly calls for partnerships, which are essential at all levels-local, national, global-for the attainment of the other seven goals and the values and actions set out in the Millennium Declaration.

UNDP's partners include governments, other UN agencies, international financial institutions, bilateral agencies, the private sector and civil society. Across countries and regions, UNDP as the UN's global development network, uses its global presence to bring together partners from many different backgrounds to share expertise, launch joint ventures and develop long-term solutions.


Did you know?


The Millennium Project recommends that private sector firms and organizations should contribute actively to policy design, transparency initiatives and, where appropriate, public-private partnerships. [Source: The Millennium Project]

 

About the MDGs: UNDP's Role

Coordinating global and national efforts

The MDGs provide a framework for the entire UN system to work coherently together toward a common end. UNDP’s global development network on the ground in 166 countries is uniquely positioned to help advocate for change, connect countries to knowledge and resources, and coordinate broader efforts at the country level. UNDP's work on the MDGs is guided by the United Nations Core Strategy on MDGs and focuses on:

  • Campaigning & mobilisation: Supporting advocacy for the MDGs and working with partners to mobilise the commitments and capabilities of broad segments of society to build awareness on the MDGs;
  • Analysis: Researching and sharing best strategies for meeting the MDGs in terms of innovative practices, policy and institutional reforms, means of policy implementation, and evaluation of financing options;
  • Monitoring: Helping countries report advancement towards the MDGs and track progress;
  • Operational activities: Goal-driven assistance to support governments to tailor MDGs to local circumstances and challenges; address key constraints to progress on the MDGs.

Did you know?


Ninety-three countries, with 62 percent of the world’s population, are not on track to reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015.


For more information: http://www.undp.org/mdg

 
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